Tony Ray Amati

Anthony "Tony" Ray Amati (born June 28, 1976), known as The Thrill Killer, is an American man connected to the deaths of three men from May to August 1996. The FBI was brought in to find Amati's whereabouts and added him to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on February 27, 1998. He was arrested two days later, tried, found guilty of the murder of Keith Dyer, and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 40 years served in 1999.

Early life Amati was born in Carbondale, Illinois. He and his family moved to Las Vegas in 1992. He graduated from Clark High School with honors in 1994. Amati was still in high school when he got a job as a telemarketer. During his murder trial, a doctor said he was highly intelligent, able to discern right from wrong, and exhibited many of the traits of obsessive–compulsive disorder. "He has the personality characteristics that you would see in a good accountant", the doctor testified.

Robbery and murders On May 26, 1996, Amati and two accomplices, 27-year-old Troy Sampson and 23-year-old Edward James, robbed Master Shooter's Supply, a gun store in southern Las Vegas, of $30,000 worth of guns and ammunition.

The next day, 27-year-old Michael Matta, a drywall worker, was shot more than twenty times while he was looking through a dumpster in a Las Vegas housing complex.

Investigation At the scene, Amati cut his hand, leaving blood that police eventually collected and used to implicate him. In October 1996, Amati, Sampson and James sold stolen guns to a dealer. Unknown to them, the buyer was an undercover policeman, and both Sampson and James were apprehended, while Amati remained at large. Their trailer was subsequently seized and searched by investigators, who uncovered the stolen weapons, which were eventually matched to the guns used to kill all three victims. It was found that in the two years Amati was a fugitive, he went under multiple pseudonyms including Anthony Ray Jones, Phillip D. Gitlitz, Debon Restivito and Shane William Wade. They suspected Amati might be in Southern Illinois, because of family that was known to have lived there. Initially, after over fifty tips from that area, that theory ran dry.

Amati's father, Charlie Amati, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstructing a peace officer for giving an officer a fraudulent license with a photo of Tony. He was sentenced to 12 months of conditional discharge and fined $200.

Trial and imprisonment In December 1996, Sampson pleaded guilty to possession of stolen property and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to 20 to 50 months in prison.

Amati, Sampson and James were all charged with the murders, but due to evidence withheld by the judge, the charges against Sampson and James were dropped by the district attorney. The murder charges against Amati remained.

During the trial, Amati claimed he only participated in the string of killings out of fear of Sampson, and only went on the run since he thought no one would believe him even if he turned himself in. Amati was acquitted of killing Matta and Garcia, but found guilty of killing Dyer. During his sentencing hearing, he said "I'm so sorry this had to happen" and begged the jury for mercy. Amati's lawyers had argued that his age warranted leniency, and said it would be unfair for him to be executed when his codefendants were walking free. The jury ultimately spared his life and recommended life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Sampson faced a federal arson charge since the store was involved in interstate commerce. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to arson and was sentenced to 150 months in prison.